Conspiracy theories laid to rest by Murrell conviction

Andrew George murdered Hilda Murrell when he was 16

By Neil Tweedie and Nick Britten

12:01AM BST 07 May 2005

March 1984. The miners' strike was in its infancy and the women of Greenham Common were protesting against the arrival of American cruise missiles. In Northern Ireland, the RUC was suspected of operating a shoot-to-kill policy.

Margaret Thatcher, triumphant in the Falklands but still fighting the Cold War, was determined to confront what she regarded as subversion at home - the "enemy within". On the Left there was a belief that, with her blessing, the gloves had come off in the corridors of the secret state.

Hilda Murrell was murdered that month, on Wednesday the 21st. Initially, the death of a 78-year-old spinster noted mainly for her expertise as a rose grower received little attention.

Police said she had been sexually assaulted, kidnapped, stabbed and left to die in a lonely copse after disturbing a burglar at her home.

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But, as time passed, the suspicion grew that Miss Murrell had been the victim of something more than a random attack.

A woman of strong convictions who had studied at Cambridge in 1920s, she opposed the civil nuclear programme and was preparing a detailed objection to the building of Britain's first pressurised water reactor at Sizewell in Suffolk. Could her research have turned up something the nuclear industry was anxious to get its hands on?

The tale grew into a full-blown conspiracy. The most likely killers, so the story went, were private operatives employed by the nuclear lobby or MI5. They had staged a "frenzied" killing to cover a botched fishing expedition for documents at her house.

Judith Cook, author of two books on the case, was the main advocate of the theory, supported by, among others, the journalist Paul Foot.

They were provided with more ammunition when it emerged that Miss Murrell's nephew, Robert Green, was a former commander in the Royal Navy who had been instrumental in sending the signal authorising the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano.

There was now another motive: the desire to recover information notionally passed by Mr Green to his aunt proving that the warship was sunk for political reasons.

In December 1984 the Labour MP Tam Dalyell called for an inquiry. He told the Commons: "There are persons in Westminster and Whitehall who know a great deal more about the violent death of Miss Hilda Murrell than they have so far been prepared to divulge."

In her second book, Miss Cook cited an "MI5 operative" who told her that Miss Murrell had indeed died after disturbing operatives searching the house. Two of the men had gone "berserk" and killed her.

The various theories were accompanied by allegations that West Mercia detectives had dragged their feet. The investigating team would soon become weary of having its motives challenged.

The officers' frustration was heightened by the knowledge that at least one uniformed colleague had blundered. The officer inspected Miss Murrell's Renault, which had been dumped at the copse by the killer after he left her to die, on the Wednesday. He established its ownership, but took the matter no further.

Had he searched the area, Miss Murrell, who took up to 10 hours to die, might have been found alive.

Det Chief Supt David Cole, who led the inquiry, told The Daily Telegraph that he immediately suspected it was a burglary gone wrong.

But he added: "The fact was the original failings were a gross dereliction of duty. Had we come clean right at the beginning, the story would never have taken off like it did. But it grew and grew, and we were prevented from concentrating on the murder inquiry. For years we were answering silly questions from Tam Dalyell, Judith Cook and others."

The irony was that, within a week of the killing, the culprit was behind bars. Andrew George was 16, the product of a broken home, who was arrested over a burglary and briefly quizzed about the Murrell murder.

But traces of semen taken by forensic scientists from the victim's underskirt were of little use because DNA profiling had yet to be developed. Mr Cole said: "The last thing I did before I retired was to make sure that exhibits from the house were preserved properly. I was convinced they would prove vital at some point."

George's conviction should bury the conspiracy theories, but maybe not. Even the jurors at Stafford Crown Court asked the judge for copies of Cook's books during their deliberations. They were refused.

With the detachment of time, it is possible to see how far-fetched the theories now appear. Miss Murrell's objection to Sizewell B contained nothing unavailable from open sources, and it is unlikely that Mr Green would have been privy to the political considerations involving the destruction of the Belgrano.

Mr Cole said: "The one quote I should like to make is, 'I told you so'."

And Mr Dalyell? Despite the verdict, he maintains his assertion that Miss Murrell was the victim of a botched operation relating to the Belgrano which had gone "hideously wrong".

He said it stretched the imagination to breaking point to suppose that the body, dumped on the Wednesday, could have lain undiscovered until the following Saturday despite a search of the copse on the Thursday by a farmer and his dog. "The two would have had no problem finding a dead rabbit, let alone the body of Hilda Murrell," he said.

And Mr Green? "There are many unanswered questions," he said. "I believe that the conviction may be unsafe."